Get the Job: Hit THEIR Goals. Forget About Yours.By Admin

March 4, 2010

I’m tired of talking to people who have not spent more than 3 minutes thinking about their experience before they go on an interview. They get asked “Why should I hire you?” and answer “I have good experience”. Or even worse: “Because I am a good worker and will do a good job for you.” (Consider the opposite, deep thinker that you are!)

Boring. Stupid. You probably spent more time talking to your friends about this Friday night’s activities than on your entire miserable career. Or at least, you spent more time on your make up or hair.

Getting hired is an exchange of perceived values (you have, they need) or a transaction involving the attempt to match value received for value given.

You, as the applicant/ recruit/ interviewee need to understand one main secret about interviewing: SHARP hiring authorities (eliminate 60% of HR, and 40% of CEO’s) want to find out in what ways YOU will help them reach THEIR goals (not yours). In that way you need to know what you can accomplish for them. You need to know what you have accomplished, how and why. You need to ask what their goals are, and being “Fully Present” in the interview (you can handle that for a few minutes can’t you Einstein?) quickly figure out how to verbally show what you have done and how it extrapolates to what they need you to accomplish.

The person who gets hired today will be the one who understands that the interview isn’t about YOU, the applicant. It’s about YOU convincing the interviewer that YOU the applicant can achieve THEIR goals. Yes, you are now a commodity. Get used to it. It’s a spin off of (Your) shopping at WalMart. Everyone now is a purchasing agent, looking for a deal. You are a commodity, the job is a commodity, the recruiter is a commodity. Only the CEO at a Wall Street firm is worth more than the GDP of a small country. Personal service is a day-dream. Just ask the 25 year old HR Rep who has a degree in Art History. They know everything. They work for B.I.G. company, and got trained by the manual in their desk drawer.

Side notes to the HR squad: This is precisely why a damn good recruiter asks you questions about things you typically have not been told by hiring authorities: “What do you expect this person to accomplish?” To which your typical and off-base answer is: “We’re looking for a person with 10 years of experience in…..”. Good lord. Stop going to SHRM CEU events and learn how to help your company accomplish THEIR goals, not yours.

Side note to Hiring Authorities: Take the time with your HR professionals to help them help you achieve your goals and the company goals. Think. Think. Think. Oh, and do something The Great Workplaces of today and tomorrow are doing: COLLABORATE. No one cares that you are a manager now. They only care that you hit THEIR goals. Do you get it now?

Respectfully,

Robert A. Schepens. (Certified Personnel Consultant, and a person who has forgotten more about HR than most entire HR departments know)

Please leave a comment if you can string together more than a single thought and can rip yourself away from Guitar Hero for more than 20 seconds. Unlike you I actually know how to play a real guitar, not a pretend one. I did the work to learn. Guitar Hero: The short cut to turn the skill of a guitarist into a commodity so wanna bees can feel the burn of talent.

Bob, good article. But… it seems like a no-brainer. In today’s job market all the company wants to know is what’s in it for them when they hire you. It is sales 101. You are selling yourself. You are providing a specific value and you need to articulate that value so others can understand it. You need to understand it so you can communicate it. The only real question a job seeker needs to really understand “is what is your goal” and let me tell you how you can help. The problem here is most hiring manager cannot or do not articulate there expectations in a way that allows others to help them.

In our experience, higher level job seekers know how to do this 30% of the time, and lower level folks about 15% of the time. Most people present their skills and “resume” before truly knowing what the employer needs to hear.